Employees advised over pension schemes
(23 March 2007)

Employees who have not yet joined their employer's pension scheme have been advised to sign up in order to safeguard a happy retirement.

A Legal & General podcast suggests that employees should take advantage of the thousands of schemes already in place around the country, ahead of new regulations set to come into force in 2012.

In five years' time employers will have to offer employees pension contributions via personal accounts, Legal & General's wealth policy director Adrian Boulding reminded attendees at a conference earlier this week.

"If employer pension contributions are on offer now, then bank them now because employers won't play catch up or offer higher contributions later because you didn't accept the earlier ones!," Mr Boulding says on the podcast.

"You will probably have to pay a contribution yourself to join the scheme, but the employer contribution will typically double your money. So use your employer contributions now, and later in life you'll be truly glad you did," he adds.

Earlier this week a white paper from the Association of British Insurers (ABI) advised that the new personal accounts system could cause problems for employees.

"Failure to act now will lead to a new, taxpayer-subsidised pension that will tempt employers to abandon their schemes into which they make contributions at higher levels than expected in personal accounts," said ABI director general Stephen Haddrill.